Maintenance Action Team Restores Habitat at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge

Cackler Marsh Fish Passage Project: Improving Habitat in the Willamette Valley

Nov 8, 2024

Each fall and following spring, the cacophony of thousands and thousands of geese cackling as the take-off and land inundate Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the refuge protects ever shrinking habitat vital to migratory birds and native species, including a vast wetland complex.

In support of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and other conservation partners shared conservation goals for the Willamette Valley, the refuge has been working to improve the 460-acre system, restoring the naturally meandering channel to improve fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.

Learn more about fish passage and wetland areas used by dusky Canada geese and other waterfowl to feed and rest. This project will maximize the ecological processes and functions by mimicking what the habitat looked like before being used for agriculture and later a refuge. In 2021, the 98-acre Dusky Marsh and half-mile of the stream were restored. This fall, work began on the second phase of the restoration effort. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintenance action team began work in the fall of 2024 to restore one mile of stream, create two off-channel wetlands, replace dilapidated control structures, and replace the fish passage barrier with a bridge.

3 photos: Man in heavy equipment, 2 people around pipe,heavy equipment

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Maintenance action teams consist of experts in heavy equipment operation, machinery, and infrastructure and maintenance who work for the Service at refuges and fish hatcheries across the United States. When needed, they come together and act as a strike team, traveling to refuges that need help on projects like the Cackler Marsh Fish Passage Project at Baskett Slough.

The team moved approximately 60,000 cubic yards of dirt using tractors, scrapers, excavators, and a grader, dozer, and vibratory sheepsfoot roller. At the end of the project, they will have restored 201 acres of marsh and stream habitat, including improved fish passage.

The team included: